President Obama held a health care town hall in New Hampshire Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - As President Barack Obama's health care proposals face opposition at town halls across the country, a new poll indicates American's opinions of how Obama is handling the issue have not changed.

Forty-three percent of people questioned in a Gallup national survey released Wednesday say they approve of how the president's handling health care, with 49 percent opposed.

The 43 percent approval rating is down just one point from a Gallup poll conducted in the middle of July. The 49 percent who oppose the president is also down a point from last month's survey. That's well within the poll's sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.

The new Gallup poll was conducted August 6-9, as lawmakers were beginning their summer recess, and as coverage of people at town halls protesting the president's health care reform proposals increased across the media.

"The good news for the White House is that the town hall protests have not affected views of Obama," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "The bad news for the White House is that a plurality of Americans had a negative view of Obama on health care before the town hall protests began."

One thousand and ten people were questioned by telephone for the Gallup poll.

soundoff(229 Responses)

carlo

The reason why some of you think Pres. Obama planted attendees at the meetings is because you don't understand the concept of behaving like civilized human beings and having disagreements without riots.